What a crock of bull. I was hoping us, the end consumers, would benefit from nVidia having some time to up the ante and place some pressure on ATI to pull some even nice cards out of their sleeves.
My last nVidia product was a GeForce 6200...I've been an ATI man since then and aside from a few driver annoyances (ATI drivers are about the worst peices of software ever written) my OCed Radeon HD 3850 performs like a champ even on today's games.
My last nVidia product was a GeForce 6200...I've been an ATI man since then and aside from a few driver annoyances (ATI drivers are about the worst peices of software ever written) my OCed Radeon HD 3850 performs like a champ even on today's games.
Lately I've been mostly on the other side of the fence, but I have to defend NVIDIA here - a Geforce 6200 and an ATI HD 3850 are not in the same class of product. The Geforce 6200 is a budget "I just want it to run Windows" card and is an older generation than the HD 3850 - the 3850 is DirectX 10.1 compliant, and is targetted at gamers who want good performance without dropping major wallet on an HD 3870. In order to compare NVIDIA to an HD 3850 fairly, you'd need to choose a much more recent NVIDIA card, such as the Geforce 8600 or 8800 GT, which were released closer to the same time as the HD 3000 series and are targetted at the same segment of gamers.
On the flip side, I have to defend ATI here as well. Your statement about ATI drivers being poorly written is based on the circumstances of several years ago - the ATI drivers of late have been reliable, configurable, and fast, with only a couple of minor hiccups (usually when they release new products). I've been running ATI graphics hardware for a year and a half and have not had any major issues with the Catalyst drivers. Any problems I experienced were quickly corrected in a patch or new driver release.
And the funny thing is the 9800GT is essentially a rebranded 8800, isn't it?
Anyway it works, though, I say the practice is pretty deceptive to consumers. Nvidia seems to be faltering a lot in the last couple years. For a period (8800 series) Nvidia was king of the hill. But now they are playing second fiddle to a much more exciting and innovative ATI. I guess it is cyclical, I am sure they will have a big comeback at somepoint.
Thrax
🐌Austin, TX Icrontian
Comments
And to no avail. Frankly, I'm disappointed.
If they continue to recycle old tech and sell it like the new flavor of the week, one day or another ATI will eat them alive.
Lately I've been mostly on the other side of the fence, but I have to defend NVIDIA here - a Geforce 6200 and an ATI HD 3850 are not in the same class of product. The Geforce 6200 is a budget "I just want it to run Windows" card and is an older generation than the HD 3850 - the 3850 is DirectX 10.1 compliant, and is targetted at gamers who want good performance without dropping major wallet on an HD 3870. In order to compare NVIDIA to an HD 3850 fairly, you'd need to choose a much more recent NVIDIA card, such as the Geforce 8600 or 8800 GT, which were released closer to the same time as the HD 3000 series and are targetted at the same segment of gamers.
On the flip side, I have to defend ATI here as well. Your statement about ATI drivers being poorly written is based on the circumstances of several years ago - the ATI drivers of late have been reliable, configurable, and fast, with only a couple of minor hiccups (usually when they release new products). I've been running ATI graphics hardware for a year and a half and have not had any major issues with the Catalyst drivers. Any problems I experienced were quickly corrected in a patch or new driver release.
Anyway it works, though, I say the practice is pretty deceptive to consumers. Nvidia seems to be faltering a lot in the last couple years. For a period (8800 series) Nvidia was king of the hill. But now they are playing second fiddle to a much more exciting and innovative ATI. I guess it is cyclical, I am sure they will have a big comeback at somepoint.